updated 09:00 am EDT, Tue July 2, 2013

Opera for Mac and Windows now powered by Webkit and Chromium

After notching up the 300 million monthly user milestone in February, Opera's all-new Webkit and Chromium-based browser has exited beta for Mac and Windows desktop users. The new browser incorporates the desktop versions of a number of features that were first seen in Opera's new mobile browser for Android. These include Speed Dial, a unified URL field, Stash and Discover that all add a range of useful functions for users.

Speed Dial allows users to put all their favorite websites in one location and adopts a smartphone app-like approach to the way these are organized. Users can reorder the pages, or create folders for groupings of similar sites. A unified URL field has also been added, that also allows users to quickly choose which search provider that the want to use for any given search.

Stash is a new way of saving clippings from webpages with a capture function that also allows users to organize these according to topic as well. Users can also quickly and easily resize clippings, while also being able to quickly search for clippings according to the topic. Discover is like having StumbleUpon built into your browser aggregating website according to areas of interest including, for example, sport, news and technology.

We have given the new version for Mac a quick hands-on and are impressed with its new capabilities. It certainly offers some interesting features that help to differentiate from other browsers on the market. Subjectively the browser seems at least as quick as the current version of Safari (6.0.5) and is also a match for Chrome for Mac. It is definitely worth a look to see if its new capabilities will help to enhance your browser workflow.